I have been inundated with angry and concerned phone calls and emails from both students and Associate Members about a recent One Show. Unfortunately I didn't see the show but I gather that the BBC's new "dog expert", Jordan Shelley, demonstrated his so-called dominance technique by supposedly curing a badly behaved Jack Russell by sticking his foot in the dog's mouth.  As so many of my correspondents have said, "What did he actually teach the dog?"  After 20-plus years' working as a dog psychologist and 12 years running the Dog Psychology Course, I find it deeply depressing that there are still some people practising techniques that might have been acceptable 30 years ago but are now regarded as, at best useless and at worst, cruel.  Typically, the taxpayer-funded BBC has dismissed the hundreds of complaints they have received with apparently no understanding that there will be some people watching that programme who will now attempt to copy the technique with their own dog - with potentially disastrous consequences for both them and the dog.  Inevitably, their sole concern is "entertainment."

If you saw the the programme and object to what you saw, please do add your voice to the chorus of complaints to the BBC.  I gather that Jordan Shelley will be back demonstrating more of his techniques - so keep a look out.